The new contracts will result in a structural overall cost saving of 15 per cent of staff costs in the cockpit before wage increases to be paid in the future.

Lufthansa chief officer for corporate human resources and legal affairs, Dr Bettina Volkens says: “We are jointly creating a sustainable collective bargaining peace until 2022. This compromise opens up career prospects for our pilots and makes an important contribution to the competitiveness of our company.”

The pension scheme will be changed from a system of defined benefits to a system of defined contributions as already agreed with ground and cabin staff, which will reduce pension liabilities by a high three-digit million euro amount while EBIT 2017 will improve by a three-digit euro amount.

Cockpit employees will maintain their previous level of old-age benefits in the future and the transitional payment scheme will be retained in principle.

Until 2021 the average age of pilots retiring from Lufthansa Passenger Services will be gradually increased to 60, the retirement age for Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings pilots, while retaining protective rights against the permanent inability to fly.

Pilots will receive staggered pay increases totalling to 10.3 per cent and a one-off payment of up to 1.8 monthly salaries for the period of May 2012 until June 2022, with entry-level and potential final compensations for future employees continuing to be based on today’s level.

The CLA is subject to approval of the trade union members in form of a ballot.